CU football: Buffs' Mike MacIntyre excited about move to Friday

CU fans not thrilled with game change

Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre was predictably enthusiastic Friday when asked for the first time about the Colorado-Colorado State football game being moved to Aug. 29, a Friday night.

"I'm excited about that," MacIntyre said. "I think it's a good deal. At first when they were looking into it, we were concerned about high school football. So we checked on that and high school football, talking to some people, they play Thursday, Friday, Saturdays. It's not like everybody is on Friday nights. Everybody shares fields so much. It would have bothered people on Thursday night. It would have bothered people on Saturdays. But I think Friday night is exciting."

MacIntyre said he also likes the move to Friday because it will give his program an extra day of preparation for its longest road trip of the season. The Buffs play Massachusetts in Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., in Week 2.

Last season, the Buffs and Rams played the season opener on Sunday evening in Denver for the same primary purpose this season's game was moved — the opportunity to have a national television audience at a time of year when fans are hungry to see football games that matter instead of more NFL preseason. The game will be televised by either ESPN or FOX Sports

Advertisement

Friday nights are traditionally reserved for high school football in the fall but it's not unusual for colleges to schedules games periodically on Fridays. The Pac-12 Conference has made weeknight football games a regular feature of each season's schedule since the league expanded. The Pac-12 championship game is played on a Friday night in December.

The CU-CSU game this year will be one of four college football games schedule that day. There are 13 games scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 28, the first official day of the college season

CU hosted USC in a Friday night game in 2011 and hosted Arizona State on a Thursday night in 2012. But those games were on campus in Boulder. There are some CU fans frustrated by the change. Many in the CU fan base already dislike having the game in Denver at Sports Authority Field in the first place.

"The only thing worse than having the game at (Sports Authority) is having to fight Friday traffic to get there," CU fan Michael Feiman said in a Twitter post.

Fans also discussed the change on the Buffzone Facebook page, including Westminster resident and Buffs fans James Schreck.

"I am actually kind of happy that I didn't renew this year now." Schreck said in his post. "This game has become a joke! Friday is for (high school) football and (high school) football only!"

Greg Herman, who said he has been a CU season-ticket holder since 1992, said he has grown weary of Thursday night games and late-night games on Saturdays. He said he threw away three sets of CU tickets to games last season because the game times were too late.

"Game day and time changes are getting really old, specially the CSU game," Herman said in an email to the Daily Camera. "In order to have a decent seat we buy club level tickets (which cost as much as the rest of the season). Had I known this game would move I probably wouldn't have bought the game."

On Twitter, Zach Kincaid said he supported the decision to move the game because he believes it will help boost attendance.

"Love it, finally a night game that should actually draw a decent crowd in Denver," Kincaid said.

Last season's game kicked off at 4:04 p.m. and ended at 7:41. It was the third consecutive Rocky Mountain Showdown to attract fewer than 60,000 fans, the majority of whom are CU fans based off ticket sales figures reported by the two schools.

MacIntyre said he also believes a Friday night game could help attract a larger crowd this year.

"Hopefully it makes it an even bigger crowd because they can go to the game and still have a long weekend," MacIntyre said. "So I'm hoping that makes it a bigger showing.

"It was exciting playing there last year, but I'd love to see the place packed in black and gold and green and gold."

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story